Excursion
by Archangel's Rifle
Summary: Lira'Mazzih nar Saehti leaves the Flotilla to embark on her Pilgrimage. Along the journey, she makes friends who help her escape the trouble she creates quickly.    OCs only.
1. Prolouge

Lira'Mazzih nar Saehti was wandering the halls, heading to her quarters. She had just finished a long day of her training. She was training with many other young quarians around her age about life outside of the Flotilla, combat, important landmarks, and basic knowledge about the whole galaxy. She had been training for about 6 months now; she figured that soon she would have to begin the Pilgrimage. She was scared about leaving everyone she knew, but she was excited at the same time. A friend of hers, Maero'Bohj, caught up to her, calling her name. That ended her train of thought. "Lira, where are you going?" he asked. "...To my quarters. Why?" she replied, with a bit of confusion. "The Captain said we all were to go to the Mess after the lessons. Remember?" he asked her. Oh, that was right. She hadn't been paying much attention that day to anyone, but now she did remember hearing something about going to the Mess. "Yes," she started. "Come on then, let's go." and with that, they both walked to the Mess silently.

When they got there, a few other quarians around their age were there. Lira and Maero stood with the little group, and within minutes, the Saehti's Captain was there, along with two Admirals, and the ones who were teaching them of life outside the Flotilla.

"Students," the Captain said sternly, "do you know why you've been called here?". Lira thought they might be in trouble. She started tensing up a little. A few of the quarians shook their heads 'no', their tension seeming to show. Lira was sure they felt how she was feeling right that moment. One of the Admirals walked forward a bit, to stand right next to the Captain. He made a dignified, professional pose. "You've been called here because after all of your training, we believe that you select few are now ready to begin your Pilgrimage."

The room seemed to go quiet. Lira didn't know how she felt. She felt honored, but scared. Anxious.

The quarians were told to go prepare. They would all be leaving at seperate times; they could not travel together. They were given some armor, and weapons. They had already went through preperations for their immune systems. Lira was walking to go tell her mother what the Captain had said. Her mother hugged her, and gave her a blessing. After telling a few close friends, she went to prepare. She suited up in the armor that was given to her, took her weapons, a credit chit, and a few other items her mother suggested she would bring, such as extra medicine in case she got sick from a suit puncture, or made a mistake in some suit repairs.

After about a day and a half, it was her turn to leave. After recieving many blessings, goodbyes, and hugs from her family and friends, she boarded the shuttle, leaving the Flotilla.

She watched from the small shuttle's window as the Saehti seemed to get smaller, and smaller, eventually she could not see any of the Flotilla's ships anymore.


	2. Chapter 1

Lira waited in the shuttle for what seemed like for forever. She was being dropped off at a public space station, and would take a civilian ship to the Citadel, and go from there to complete her Pilgrimage.

While she was on the shuttle, she remembered the time she spent with her friends. She remembered the lessons she had. She hoped she would not forget how to survive out here.

After awhile, the shuttle landed at the station. She boarded off with her supplies, then heard the shuttle's driver. "Go in peace, Lira'Mazzhi. Keelah se'lai.". She turned her head around to see the driver. "Keelah se'lai." she repeated. She was on her own now.

She walked to where there were groups of people standing, waiting for the next ship out of there. There was a lot of chatter going on, she sort of glanced to see if there were any quarians. None. She sighed, walking closer to the waiting area, taking a seat. There were mainly asari and humans there, a few salarians, and even a less amount of turians. She looked at the station's schedule- the next ship to the Citadel would arrive in 3 hours. She was patient. She could deal with the wait.

She eavesdropped on some of the other people's conversations. She noticed a few people staring at her, a few even scowling at her. She felt uncomfortable. After awhile, she opened her omni-tool. She read over some information to pass the time; mainly the things she learned during her training. After awhile, another ship had come by. It was the one going to the Citadel. She grabbed her supplies, and walked with a very large crowd onto the ship. When she entered, she sort of looked around. The ship was amazing. Everyone went off in seperate directions, whether they were going to sit down, or just stand around and talk. She walked over to a large window, set her stuff down, and watched outside as the ship finally began to take off. She flinched a bit when a voice came over a loud speaker. "Attention passengers," the voice, obviously feminine, said. "Welcome aboard! This ship is heading to the Citadel. We will be there in a few hours..." and the announcment went on for another minute, giving a tour of where things were aboard the ship, such as the cafe, the bathroom, a resting area, and observation deck, and other areas. As the announment ended, she stared back out the small window. She watched the stars go by as they were heading toward a Mass Relay. She would be at the Citadel soon.


	3. Chapter 2

Lira exited the shuttle with the crowds when in landed in the docking bay on the Citadel. She followed them down into a security checkpoint. Immediately she knew this would not go well. She learned that most quarians are questioned more than any other species on the Citadel because most thought of them as thieves. By the time it was her turn to cross through the checkpoint, a human C-Sec officer stopped her.

"Ma'am, please come with me." he scowled at her. She complied, not wanting to start anything.

They walked to an interrogation room. "Did I do something wrong?" she asked the officer.

"No, not yet, but we have to be careful with you _quarians._" he emphasized the species' name.

_Racist bastard._ Lira thought to herself.

"We're just going to ask you a few questions and take a look at your belongings." another officer said.

"Alright, officers." she said calmly.

"Please, ma'am, take a seat." he motioned his hand towards a different chair than their retraint chairs; that chair wasn't needed. Lira sat down, prepared for whatever questions they were asking.

"What business do you have here on the Citadel?" one of the officers, the 'good cop', asked.

"I'm here on my Pilgrimage." she answered.

"Yeah, that's what a lot of the quarians come here say." the other cop, the 'bad cop', said rudely.

The good cop looked at him angrily. "Be polite." he said sternly.

The officers asked her more questions, such as how long she was staying, if she needed to get somewhere else, if she needed somewhere to stay, or if they could help out in any way. Lira answered all of them, and then the cops looked through her belongings.

"Weapons?" the good cop looked at her, holding a pistol in his hand that he pulled from her bag.

"For protection on the Pilgrimage. I have no plan on even showing them while I'm on the Citadel, sir." she tried to convince him to not take them away, she needed them for her protection when she went to her next location.

"You can keep them, but we'll be keeping a very close eye on you. I hope you understand, ma'am." the officer told her.

"I understand, sir." Lira said politely.

After continuing to search through her belongings, she was able to finally leave the interrogation room. She walked about, taking in the wards' view and people. So many different species were there- asari, human, turian, hanar, elcor... but no quarians. She felt many eyes on her, giving her looks.

She walked around until she got to a less civilized area, and sat down on a bench.

"Where am I supposed to go?" she asked herself, talking out loud. "I didn't think about that... Maybe I can rent an apartment or something..." but she only had enough credits to get off the Citadel, and she highly doubted anyone would hire her for a job.

An asari overheard her talking. She walked over and sat down next to her on the bench.

"I overheard you talking. Do you need a place to stay?" she asked politely.

Lira looked at her. The asari was a dark blue, obviously in the maiden stage of her life. She had white markings on her face, and she was wearing a white revealing shirt and gray pants and black shoes.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to be a bother... but thank you for the offer." Lira said, smiling under her helmet.

"You wouldn't be a bother. It's not too often a quarian comes to the Citadel. By the looks of it, you're on that... what's it called...Pilgrimage?" the asari smiled at her.

"Yes, I am." Lira answered professionally.

"Well, then, I'd be happy to let you stay with me for awhile. I just recently moved here and I don't know anybody. It'd be nice to have a friend." the asari said. "My name's Adeilia. What's yours?"

"I'm Lira. Lira'Mazzhi nar Saehti." She said her full name with pride.

"Okay, Lira. It's nice to meet you." Adeilia stood up, holding out her hand to shake Lira's- a human tradition she had learned over the years.

"Nice to meet you too, Adeilia." Lira stood up next to her, taking her hand and shaking it. "And thank you for offering me your home."

Adeilia smiled. "No problem." she said cheerfully.

Adeilia started walking to her apartment, and Lira followed.


	4. Chapter 3

"Well, this is it." Adeilia said as the door shut by itself behind them.

"You have a nice place." Lira said politely, as she looked around at the main room from where she was standing. The main room wasn't all that big, it was basically shaped like medium-sized square, with other doors on the walls, and a very small kitchen to the right of the entrance. The floor was a hard metal; much like the rest of the Citadel. There was a big window overlooking the Citadel's population, mainly showing all the city's lights. Against that wall was a couch that could hold maybe 7 people. The walls were a nice mettalic blue. There were 4 doors against the other walls.

"Come on, I'll give you a tour." Adeilia said and started walking to the closest door, and let the doors slide open on their own. "This is the washroom. Nothing special..." she started. "It has a decontamination sequence when the door shuts after you enter, so, you don't have to worry about catching any harmful germs for a few minutes, at least." she added in quickly. She didn't want her new friend to die of air exposure, after all. She left that room, Lira following, and went to the next closest door. "This room's my bedroom." she said, and pointed at a room across from it at the opposite wall. "That's the guest bedroom... Where you'll stay." she smiled.

"Thank you, Adeilia." Lira said, smiling under her helmet.

"No problem. The other room's just a storage closet. Nothing really in there though. You're welcome to use it for whatever." she suggested.

Lira nodded as if to say 'thank you' to her again.

After Lira got her belongings settled into her room, that Adeilia graciously offered to her, she walked out and sat near her asari friend on the couch.

"So," Adeilia started, thinking of what to talk about. "How long have you been on your Pilgrimage?" she asked.

"Only about a day." Lira answered. "I already miss home."

"Yeah, I suppose I would too. I miss Thessia a lot. I moved her to get a job at C-Sec, but they won't hire me." Adeilia said, and pouted.

"Why wouldn't they accept you in?" Lira asked. "I'd think they'd let anyone join."

"I have a criminal record in the Terminus systems. Not like it should matter here, but, they still won't hire me because of it. They said they weren't going to arrest me unless I started trouble here."

Now Lira was a bit weary about trusting Adeilia so easily. Then again, trusting people before she really new anything about them was a bad habit she had. She didn't think someone so nice could actually be a convict.

"I actually came here to get away from all that shit," Adeilia started, worried by Lira's silence after talking about her record. "I don't want to be like... that anymore." she smiled to herself.

"I see. Well, everyone deserves a second chance." Lira smiled, at ease again.

"That we do. But hey, it's getting late, and I can tell you're tired. And, well, I am too. How about we call it a night?" she asked.

"Oh, sure." Lira stood up as Adeilia stood up.

"If you need me for anything, lemme know, okay?" Adeilia said, walking to her room.

"Alright. Thanks again, for everything, Adeilia." Lira walked to her new room as well, the door slid open, and slid shut behind her. She sat down on the bed, looking around at her room again, before laying down, and falling to sleep.

Lira woke up pretty early the next morning. She got up, took some nutrient paste that she brought with her from the Flotilla, and ate it. When she was done, she left the room. Adeilia wasn't awake yet. She walked over to her bedroom door to see if she were alright. She opened it, and Adeilia wasn't there.

"Maybe she went out for some errands." Lira told herself.

She was right, after she left the room, she walked over to the small kitchen's counter and saw a note from Adeilia.

_Lira,_

_I've gone to Dark Star for a few drinks. If you want, come meet me there when you wake up. We could have a ton of fun together._

_-Adeilia._

She read the note out loud, then set it down.

"Well, then, time to go." she said as she walked to the door, and left the apartment. She made sure to lock the door beind her; she wouldn't want it to be robbed, especially since her new friend would be in distress if such a thing happened.

She walked through the corridors, and at least 10 levels down, until she reached the club. She walked in, greeted by some loud music and color-changing lights. She looked around for Adeilia, and finally found her sitting at the bar.

"Hey!" Adeilia greeted her and offered her a seat next to her.

"Hi, Adeilia." Lira had to basically yell over the music, taking a seat down next to her.

"About time you got here," Adeilia giggled, obviously getting a bit tipsy.

"Yeah, sorry about the wait." Lira said nervously.

Adeilia set down her drink. "Come on, let's go daaance!" she said excitedly.

Adeilia basically grabbed Lira's hand, and dragged her over to other dancers. They danced for a good hour until they finally had enough. Mainly because of how drunk Adeilia got.

What really surprised her was that Adeilia was so drunk she offered everyone a round of drinks on her. There was a full house, was she crazy?

Everyone cheered and drank happily, going back to dancing and yelling over the music, trying to converse.

Two hours had passed and Adeilia and Lira left Dark Star. They were walking around the Ward, stopping at random shops and buying things and acting like best friends.

Only one thing had to ruin it.

A turian in one of the shops tried to flirt with Adeilia after realizing she was a bit drunk; but she wouldn't have that. She slammed that turian with a biotic wave and he went smashing right up against a wall. He wasn't dead, or injured at that, just stung for a few moments.

Lira thought it was alright before, since Adeilia was defending herself. But, unfortunately, a C-Sec officer noticed the interval.

"Ladies, you'll both have to come with me." he said. He led them to the C-Sec Academy, but left a few other officers behind to make sure the turian was alright.

When they got to a private room in the academy, they were immediately bombarded with questions.

The officer went through Adeilia's files. He knew she was a convict, or used to be, but since she technically commited assault, he was going to put both her and Lira under arrest.

Adeilia sure wasn't going to let that happen.

She threw a biotic warp right on him, and ran. Lira ran right behind her. Officers were on their tail; they rain faster, and it helped that Adeilia kept blasting biotic waves at them to slow the officers down. They ran to the docking bay, and ran onto a ship that was going to take off very shortly. They hid in the crowds, and by the time the officers caught up to the docking bay, the ship was taking off. They got away; they just had no idea where exactly they were going.

Adeilia and Lira were sitting in chairs on the ship.

"That was amazing. Haven't ran from people like that in awhile." Adeilia smiled, still catching her breath. "But this means we can't come back to the Citadel, we just ran from the law." she chuckled lightly.

"Well... what do we do then?" Lira asked.

"We go where this ship's going." Adeilia answered.

Right when she finished talking, an announcement came on the intercom.

"Welcome aboard, passengers." the man's voice said. "This ship will be making three stops, so, get comfortable. First, we're heading to Earth," Adeila and Lira both frowned; they didn't want to deal with humans today. "Next, to Noveria," they frowned again, just a place of business and mean businessmen and women that they didn't want to have anything to do with. "And, finally, Omega. Please remember that Omega is in the Terminus systems. If you do not wish to be in such an area, plase consider boaring to either Earth or Noveria."

Lira and Adeilia looked at eachother.

"I guess we'll be staying on Omega, then." Adeilia told her.

"I guess so." Lira replied.

They were silent the rest of the long ride.


	5. Chapter 4

A full day had passed before Lira and Adeilia were able to unboard off the shuttle into Omega's docking bay. Lira had remembered this place being mentioned in her studies on the Flotilla. She was honestly scared to be in this lawless station, but felt a bit more safe knowing Adeilia was with her.

"I have a place here. I don't know if people have raided into it and are calling it their home now, but I never sold it, so there's a good chance it's still available for us." Adeilia told her friend. "We can stay there until it's safe to go back to Citadel space."

"Thanks, Adeilia. But... I have to continue on with my Pilgrimage soon. I can stay with you for awhile but not too long." Lira said softly, hoping Adeilia would understand.

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Come on, you can continue that soon, you deserve a little break from... well... all of that." Adeilia studdered, not too sure how to word her sentence. She knew little about quarians; only their history, some culture, technology, and a few things about the Pilgrimage.

-

Adeilia walked with Lira to the complex she used to live at months ago, before she left. She went up to the 10th floor, to where her apartment used to be. She walked over to the door and typed in the passcode to get in. It took her a minute to remember, and she entered in the wrong code many times, but finally she got it. They walked inside.

Everything was the way Adeilia had left it. It was actually quite similar to her apartment on the Citadel. It was just much bigger, and had different wall and floor colors.

"I don't have a guest bedroom, but the couch is a pull-out sleeper. You can sleep there for tonight." Adeilia smiled to her.

Lira gave a grateful nod. "Thank you, Adeilia."

Adeilia sat down on her couch, looking at Lira, who was still standing.

"Mind getting us a couple of drinks? Should still be some left in the kitchen." she said.

"Oh, sure." Lira said as she turned and walked towards the kitchen area. She opened a few cabinents, finally finding some liqour. She couldn't have any, though. All the drinks Adeilia had left  
weren't quarian-safe.

She happily poured Adeilia a glass and brought it and the liquor's container to her.

"Thanks." Adeila said, gulping the drink down. "Sorry that I don't have any drinks that you can drink."

"It's fine." Lira said, sitting down on the opposite end of the couch.

"There's a nice club here- Afterlife. We'll get you some drinks there later." Adeilia smiled.

Lira hesitated for a moment; she wasn't much of an alcohol person. "Well... alright." Lira finally smiled to her friend.

"Great." Adeilia smiled, pouring some more liquor into her glass.

-

Lira walked to Adeilia's now unconscious body.

_Drank too much again... _Lira thought to herself. She propped Adeilia's legs up on the couch.

She walked around her apartment, and eventually walked out the door. She could use a drink after dealing with Adeilia's obnoxious drinking habits.

Lira walked down to the first floor of the building, and left the complex. She walked to where they entered in the first place, and from there, followed some loud music that she figured was the Afterlife club Adeilia told her about. She walked until she found it, people giving her weird looks the whole time.

She walked towards the end of the long line that was formed at the very entrance of the club, a turian joining the line behind her. She could hear arguing at the front of the line. Some human couldn't get in. She smiled to herself, holding back a giggle. The line became shorter and shorter, some people entering Afterlife, some walking away in frustration. She finally made her way to the front of the line.

"Name." the elcor said.

"Lira'Mazzih nar Saehti." she replied.

After a few short seconds, the elcor told her she couldn't enter, because her name was not on the list.

"But-" she started, the turian behind her cutting her off.

"She's with me." he said, stepping up in front of her.

The elcor let them in. The turian was well known to Aria's people- he was a drug dealer. He mainly sold red sand.

The turian grabbed Lira's arm gently, pulling her into the club with him. Once they were in, Lira snatched her arm away.

"Thanks. For getting me in." she said politely.

"Yeah, yeah, no problem. Buy me a drink." he said, smirking.

"Of course." Lira smiled and they continued to walk in together.


End file.
